oct 10 // the dirty fabulous + jeff sparks

This month we are featuring some of Oklahoma City’s best illustrative artists.

The Dirty Fabulous is exhibiting 3 original works along with 4 archival reproductions. These works are created with acrylic and oil on metal and are a part of an ongoing series since 1993. “The Dirty Fabulous produces relics of the modern American psyche in large-scale mixed media paintings and drawings. Referencing diverse historical, literary and pop subjects. The compositions are littered with symbolic imagery that is part satire, personal musing and broken alchemy….”

We are also excited to feature the work of Jeff Sparks this month whose works and are painstakingly stippled in a process he likens to painting in that he works “… over the same area multiple times to build depth and detail, similar to working from an under-painting.” His works are inspired by mythological and occult stories, theology, philosophy and the occult.

The Dirty Fabulous
What is your medium/process?
Images are worked up from large scale drawings and a fair amount of research. Paintings are done in acrylic and oil paint on metal. Pieces typically take about a month to complete and are done completely by hand.

Where are you from?

How would you describe your latest body of work?
I am very interested in referencing ancient mythology / belief systems. So while the works visually have their origins in pop culture, comics, pulp illustrations - the content of the work is in many ways quite serious. I see them as fables or stories, retold as a kind of dark comedy.

How did you get started?
These started as a fluke, really. However, like many things that start as a fun, open-ended exploration, they have the chance of growing into something much more.

What are your goals for the future?
Keep painting. I enjoy the opportunity to participate in shows like this and contribute to Oklahoma City's growing visual culture.

Jeff SparksWhat is your medium/process?
Primarily I work with ink, stippling. My process is a bit atypical for stippled ink work though. I have gravitated toward a style more like painting in that I will work over the same area multiple times to build depth and detail, similar to working from an under-painting.

Where are you from?
Nowhere special, just Oklahoma.

How would you describe your latest body of work?
The themes are still dark, though not overtly morbid in my opinion. I have been drawing more from nature, mythological, and occult sources to build the imagery. It is more of a free-form atavistic approach though, creating more from feeling rather than creating imagery specific to any particular story or myth.

What inspires you?
I can recall that even as a child, I felt persistent anxiety about, not only my existence, but existence in general as well as more pressing issues like: whether or not I was going to die that day from a full nuclear assault or simply a biblical end times/rapture scenario. Those sort of things never really go away and as a result I suppose, I have always lurked in the shadows of the more esoteric circles. Mix all of that with a little D&D, teenage rebellion, and a religious upbringing; you get a completely normal guy with a fascination in mysticism, theology, philosophy and the occult.

I guess that doesn’t really answer the question. All of that said though, I can say that I draw a lot of inspiration from music and literature without going into great detail about the kind of music and books from which I would derive said inspiration. I will say that I hold a special affinity for the works of Joris-Karl Huysmans, Jeffrey Burton Russell, David Tibet and Virgil Finlay.

How did you get started?
I don’t really know. I’ve always drawn and I used to paint, but I started working with ink a lot while I was taking illustration classes at UCO. I felt more suited to working in that method as well as feeling that it allowed me to more accurately achieve what I wanted in my images. Everything else kind of fell away and it has just progressed from there.

What are your goals for the future?
I would just like to continue working with enough success to eke out an existence and maybe find a small place on a hillside with my cats, away from all the peoples.

More short term though, I would like to start working on the Key of Solomon project that I’ve been dreaming about for the past decade. It is a very daunting undertaking that will probably take me years to complete based on the volume of work and the relative speed at which I can work.

jeff sparks: july 13th

Jeff Sparks is talented local illustrator/artist whose art we first saw in 2008 at the Canvas shoe art show. Since then we searched with no luck and spent many long nights wondering where he hides his works. We were ecstatic when we saw a shirt he illustrated for Warpaint a couple years ago and then shortly after when he approached us for a show. Needless to say he doesn't show very often so come get a rare peek at his dark and masterful illustration skills. This is a perfect show for a Friday the 13th.

We will also have the music of Cari Wallenberg out front once it cools down a bit in the evening.